As students or simply travelers on a tight budget, the most essential thing is to make priorities in each of the trips and allocate our budget wisely. It does sound quite a bit of work or so, but you will definitely be most satisfied when your travels do fit into the size of your wallet. In addition, you could also add in additional plans or even splurge more when you carefully plan the budget of your journey.
So, if you do not have any initial plans on finding work or money in the trip you are making, if it is backpacking or going to some quite expensive cities, one important way to have a successful journey is to simply, cook. Cook anytime, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, bring packed lunched, packed dinner, you could eat it basically anywhere. Grocery shopping will also be cheaper than eating out, and if you go with a group, the cost of food could be divided, and it will become cheaper.
Don’t get me wrong, one of the elements of traveling is to be emerged in the local taste, yet again, planning is key. Firstly before the trip, determine how much of a budget you have, and how many you would allocate for food. To be specific for each allocation would be important in this part.
After that, a good idea would be to plan and determine on which days you would want to find the local dishes, where to find them, and how much do they cost. A lot of forums and recommendations are available on the internet, so to find a cheap and delicious restaurant that serves local dishes is not impossible! Find all the information on grocery shopping in the place you are going to, all the prices of the ingredients you would need, and if a kitchen is available in the place you are staying. A good tip would be to book a place to stay that does have a kitchen and utensils, yet most budget hostels and places to stay already have kitchens.
Furthermore, one option would be to bring some ingredients from home, such as bread and jams or Nutella for breakfast, or even pasta, if you are willing to bring them.
The last, yet most important thing is, commitment. If you have already planned it all, the most important last thing is to stick with the plan because if not, it will cause you to go out of budget. If you planned to cook lunch on a specific day, do not go out and get lunch at nearby fast food restaurant just because you feel that it is easier to do so. To fight that laziness would mean a reward of staying on budget, getting to splurge on some days, save up money for your next trip, and not wasting money that is not supposed to be there in the first place.